Psychologists tell us that the stress
from positive events can have exactly
the same effect on our bodies as the
stress from negative events. We sometimes
overlook this fact and then wonder
why we find ourselves getting sick
at a time when everything seems to be
going well.

Cardinal John Henry Newman once
said, “To be human is to change. To be
perfect is to have changed often.” Our
lives are filled with change, and many
of those changes involve endings and
death, whether actual physical death or
the death of something important to
us, part of our lives, the way we define
who we are and what we hold dear. No
matter how many times we experience
changes large and small, they still can
startle us. And yet everything we know
in our world changes.

All creation moves and changes constantly.
The seasons change according
to a natural cycle each year. As the
earth circles the sun and rotates on its
axis, different areas are closer to or farther
away from the sun. The changing
levels of light and heat affect all growing
things, ourselves included. From
earlest times, people have noted the
changing seasons and arranged their
lives accordingly. Even in our increasingly
contained and technological
lifestyle, we can never completely
escape the changing seasons.

So it is with our faith. It’s easy to
hear Jesus’s words as the prediction of
some cataclysmic end of the world. But
the image Jesus uses suggests that the
portents will be much more in line
with the natural changes of our everyday
lives. He talks about the spring
buds on the fig tree as a sign that summer
and its fruitfulness are near at
hand.

As long as we can accept that change
is natural, we don’t need to live in fear.
The French have a saying that translates
to, “The more things change, the
more they stay the same.” For us, what
stays the same is the core of our faith,
the belief that God is the “stillpoint of
the turning world.”

Today’s reading from the book of
Daniel makes an interesting observation:
“The wise shall shine brightly like
the splendor of the firmament, and
those who lead the many to justice
shall be like the stars forever.”
We know, as the original biblical
author did not, that this image is truer
than he might have imagined. The
light of the stars comes from such a
great distance that the star itself may
have burned out long before its light
ever reaches the earth.

The good that we do lives on long
after the short span of our mortal lives
has ended. We add to the light that
brightens our world and brings people
closer to Christ who is the true light.
Jesus reminds us that we don’t know
when the world will end. In fact, we
don’t even know the day or the hour
when our own lives will end. But we
do know that end they will, at least in
their present form.

If we’re working each day to do our
part to reveal the presence of the kingdom
of God in our midst, then what
we’re doing today is likely to be little
different than what we’d be doing if it
were the last day of our lives.
As we become more flexible, more
willing the move with the inevitable
changes of life, we come closer to
understanding that end as just another
change to bring us closer to divine perfection.